Halifax council last week agreed to spend $2.7 million to purchase
the Chester Spur Line, a rail corridor that winds its way from
Fairview, around the Fairmount neighbourhood and out to the Lakeside
Industrial Park.
CN stopped running trains on the line some years ago, and last year
put it up for sale with a $3 million asking price. The city asked for,
and received, rights of first refusal, and began negotiations for the
lower price. Funding comes from dedicated trail acquisition funds and
from $750,000 over-dedicated to the Lacewood/BiHi interchange
rebuilding. The city plans to ask the provincial Department of Health
Promotion and Protection to also pony up $750,000 for the purchase.
As soon as the city acquires title to the line—by next summer at
the latest—crews will build a crusher dust trail along the line, says
Peter Bigelow, HRM’s manager of real property. By the following summer,
an asphalt multi-use trail will be constructed.
The asphalt will allow for wintertime plowing, says Bigelow. But
day-to-day management of the trail will be placed in the hands of a
community trail group.
The western end of the new trail will meet up with the existing
Beeechville-Lakeside-Timberlea trail, an extension of the same rail
line. The trail group that manages the BLT allows the use of ATVs, but
Bigelow says all vehicles will be banned from the Chester Spur
trail.
Chester Spur is the lynchpin to a complex city-wide trail system
envisioned by trail advocates. At its Fairview terminus, it will hook
up with two future trails—one leading north along the Bedford Basin,
another swinging to the east, around Seaview Park and along the Halifax
waterfront. The trail also will meet an extension of the existing
Mainland Linear Trail through Clayton Park, and a proposed trail
through Long Lake Park. And the western terminus meets the BLT.
This article appears in Aug 20-26, 2009.
That’s wonderful. Great news!
BOO!!!!! The city should be concentrating on transforming this into a commuter rail system rather than providing more trails for ATVer’s to tear up. The commute from Beechville-Lakeside-Timberlea is fricken horrible, these rail lines should be reinstated and used as a GREEN option for traveling to and from downtown and for reducing traffic tie-ups.
This is POOR judgment on our municipal leader’s part.
ATVs won’t be allowed on this trail.
Commuter rail system to where? The line ENDS at the nearest end (farthest from everything) of the BLIP on one end and behind the Joe Howe Stuporstore at the other. If the city spent millions on THAT just for the sake of saying “we’ve got commuter rail” they’d look like bigger fools than they already are. Who the fuck is going to bike/walk from the Joe Howe stuporstore area up to Bayers Lake, anyway? I’ve biked the BLT section and its awesome and serves a community well. I don’t know who will use this 3M section or when/why they will.
Should have saved our money on this one.
Kudos to the city for this…and to “The Coast” for being the first to let me know about it! As a long-time biker of the trail system between Lakeside and Hubbards, I can’t wait to get on the new section. Now, if I can only find someone to drop me off in Bayers Lake and pick me up (downhill) on Joe Howe…
The rails to trails program is a great idea; taking useless torn up railways, and turning them into something useful. I’ll admit, the BLT trail is fantastic (and much to the mire of jamesk, is actually kept up to snuff by the local ATV association) and I’ve used it one than one to bike for a few afternoons, when I lived in the area. Expanding the idea into the city core makes even better sense, especially considering that these trails are frequented by runners, cyclists and the like.
Excuse me Cranky…but in case you never used your peeps before, behind the Joe Howe “Stuporstore” lies the cut that takes you to the South end
YES YES YES AWWW FRIGGIN YES. Bike the bay road almost every day. Now will be able to make it to Bayers Lake from downtown with only a four percent grade. Anyone who works there, the city just saved you the price of your car a year. Sell it. No more hills of death. Even with the hills on the bay road I can make it in 24 minutes. Imagine how fast it will be now. Kiss traffic good bye.
The cut to the southend isn’t being used by anything except trains.
This sounds like a good idea. Although, I can see where the earlier poster not in favor of this is coming from.
In my perfect world trains would be the most used form of long distance transportation. Just think about this. Bombardier in Quebec make some of the fastest trains in the world and then sell them to Europe and Asia. Why don’t we build an infrastructure like that in Canada where you can get from Halifax to Montreal, Ottawa or Toronto in an afternoon with out having to deal with airports. I would definately being taking that train several times a year.
I agree – congrats to the Coast for reporting this – There’s a sign on Joe Howe beside the Superstore advertising an 80,000 SF piece for sale by CN, which I believe is part of the Chester Spur line – if so, it appears HRM isn’t buying the whole line – anybody know?
A trail system throughout the city sounds great, especially one bypassing some of the nastier hills to cycle up, such as Lacewood and St. Margaret’s at Keating. There already are people using the abandoned tracks to get from the Bay road to Bayers, and I’d wager the commute from Joe Howe to BLIP will be twice as quick on a bike, than taking the 52.
I have three things on my wish list:
1. The city balances the construction between a line that can be switched to a light rail system cheaply if and when HRM is ready to support it, and that supports trail upkeep and maintenance.
2. Space is left for a cross country skiing track. Fredericton does a good job of this.
3. The trail is patrolled from time to time, both at night and day
I agree with Jamesk, that we should be looking for commuter rail in this town. This line could tie into the line that runs down the railcut to the South End, and around the basin. The line could easily be extended to serve the new metropolis of Clayton Park West.
All and all, a bunch better option that some kind of hovercraft that only serves bedford.
Cranky: “The cut to the southend isn’t being used by anything except trains.”
EXACTLY! The cut to the south end is used by trains… including the VIA passenger rail station. It could be one terminus of an overall commuter rail service including connections to BLIP, connections along the Bedford highway and beyond, connections in the north end of the peninsula via the old Kempt Road line as far as the Halifax Forum (with some land re-acquisition), connections along the north end of the waterfront as far as HMCS Dockyard…
Such plans would have to start somewhere. For example, with strategic acquisition of the necessary rights-of-way. Better to take possession of and preserve existing infrastructure before it’s torn up.